


Protect Me A Little

by houdini74



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Committed Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 02:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houdini74/pseuds/houdini74
Summary: Patrick is keeping something from David and David assumes the worst.





	Protect Me A Little

It was the silence that woke him. Even in the depths of sleep, the absence of Patrick’s quiet breathing next to him was enough to bring him awake. He reached for Patrick, but the other side of the bed was cold and empty.

Forcing his eyes open, he could see Patrick’s face reflected in the pale light of the laptop screen from where he sat on the couch. David propped himself up on one elbow and watched him for a minute, this was the third time this week he had woken to find Patrick sitting up in the middle of the night. 

“Everything okay?” he whispered. Even in the dim light he could see Patrick flinch.

“It’s fine, David, go back to sleep.”

He shifted so that he could see Patrick more easily. Patrick sighed.

“Go to sleep, David.”

A small tendril of worry unleashed itself in David’s stomach. He lay back, and just as he began to drift back to sleep, he felt Patrick slip back under the covers beside him. The worry wound itself around David’s heart. Even though he was unsure of the reception he might get, David moved over to wrap an arm around Patrick and pull him close. With a small sigh, Patrick snuggled into David, weaving their fingers together.

The next morning, David could tell by the dark shadows under Patrick’s eyes that he hadn’t slept. He thought about recommending his favorite eye cream, one of their suppliers made it from cucumber and green tea and it did wonders. But he could tell from the distracted look on Patrick’s face that he probably wouldn’t want to hear about, so he stayed quiet, as the worry clenched tighter, threatening to smother him.

At the store, Patrick finished opening while David went across the street to the Cafe to get a coffee and a tea for Patrick. As he opened the door, he could hear Patrick in the back room, having an intense conversation on the phone.

“Okay, well I appreciate whatever you can do,” Patrick said, unhappiness clearly evident in his voice. “I’ll wait to hear….yes... okay.” He hung up the phone and took his cup from David. Normally, he’d give David a kiss on the cheek as thanks for the tea, but this morning he just moved away to put his phone on the counter. 

“Who was that?”

Patrick looked away. “Just the bank. Our new Account Manager can’t seem to figure out our business model.”

Even to David, this didn’t make any sense, their business model wasn’t that complicated. But Patrick clearly didn’t want to talk about it further and David wasn’t sure that he want to press him, especially if it might lead to a conversation that he didn’t know if he wanted to have. The worry inside him grew a little bit larger and dug in its claws.

By the end of the day, David felt like he was losing his mind. He had spent most of the day watching Patrick from across the store. Every so often Patrick would catch him watching and he would smile at David, his smile a sharp, brittle thing completely unlike his usual warm grin.

Was Patrick going to break up with him? David’s anxiety told him that was the likeliest option except that every time Patrick came near him, his hands would reach out to David with quick, warm touches on his arm, the small of his back. Not what he expected from someone who was about to end things. 

Maybe Patrick was cheating on him? Patrick had never seemed the type and they were together pretty much all the time, but maybe he’d met someone online? That could explain what he was doing in the middle of the night. David forced himself to take a deep breath as the strands of worry tightened even more.

Oh god, he thought. Maybe Patrick was dying. He felt the worry fill his entire body. In desperate need of a distraction before his thoughts spiralled completely out of control, he began to redo the display of their new organic soaps that he had just put together the day before. Normally, Patrick would tease him about something like this, but Patrick was standing at the front counter, staring out the window. David had to brace himself against the table as the worry threatened to rise up and break free.

They were closing up for the day when David’s desperation finally won out over his desire to run and hide. He came over to where Patrick was closing out the cash register and stood anxiously in front of the counter, his hands clenched into fists, nails biting into his palms.

“Patrick,” his voice broke and he stopped and started again, “I need...I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

Patrick froze for a moment before he looked up briefly and met David’s eyes.

“Everything’s fine.”

The worry inside David finally broke free.

“It’s not fine!” he was almost shouting. “You’ve barely said two words to me today and you haven’t slept in three days. You look like the before picture in an anti-aging commercial! If you’re going to leave me or whatever, then just do it, I’d rather deal with that than have to spend any more days like this!”

David was panting, his arms crossed. He looked away from Patrick as he desperately tried to keep from crying.

In an instant, Patrick moved from behind the counter and wrapped David in his arms. David buried his face in Patrick’s soft sweater, hiding the tears that he hadn’t been able to stop. Patrick was whispering in his ear.

“I’m so sorry, David. I’m not leaving you, I love you too much to ever leave you.”

David took a deep, shuddering breath and he pulled back so that he could see Patrick’s face. 

“Then what’s going on?”

Patrick stepped back to lean against the counter, keeping hold of one of David’s hands as though it was a lifeline. He ran his other hand through his short hair.

“Okay,” he began, looking up at David, before staring at the floor. “On Monday, I noticed that our bank balance wasn’t right. It looked like we were about four thousand dollars short of where we should be. I couldn’t figure out why, I went through every transaction and I finally figured out that the cheque we wrote to Mrs Carmichael in April had been cashed twice.”

David knew that Mrs Carmichael was one of their largest suppliers. Her hand woven linens were expensive and popular. Patrick was continuing.

“I’ve been dealing the bank and the police for the past three days.”

David could feel that the hand that was holding his was trembling a little and he gripped it a bit tighter.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly. 

“I didn’t tell you because I know your family’s been ripped off by business managers that you trusted before. From the beginning, you put so much trust in me and I felt like I’d failed you. Like I’d failed us.” 

Patrick’s eyes were bright and he was grasping David’s hand rather desperately. 

“You are not my business manager,” David said fiercely. “I mean, you are, but you know that’s the least of what you are to me. Did you really think that my first thought would be that you were some sort of con artist who had worked his way into my life so thoroughly that I don’t even know if I could untangle us? Just to steal four thousand dollars? Do you really think that’s how little I trust you?”

As he said the words, David realized that a year ago, maybe even six months ago, that might have been exactly what he would his first thought would have been. He tugged on Patrick’s hand, suddenly needing to close the two foot gap that was between them. But Patrick wasn’t finished.

“I was scared, David.”

Patrick’s words hung in the air between them. David knew that if he tried to speak, he would start to cry again, so he stepped towards Patrick, leaning over to kiss him as gently and sweetly as he could. Patrick kissed him back, softly at first, before opening his lips to David with a small whimper of relief and desire. 

After a minute David asked, “So, are you going to have Mrs Carmichael arrested?” Mrs Carmichael had to be at least seventy-five and she couldn’t be more than five feet tall. She wove her tablecloths and other linens from a studio in her basement.

Patrick laughed shakily. “No, it wasn’t her fault. Or at least it mostly wasn’t her fault. She’d deposited the cheque on her phone and then it was stolen from her purse. She didn’t even know it was missing until I called her.”

“Oh good,” David replied. “Replacing her as a supplier probably wouldn’t be as hard as replacing you as my boyfriend and business partner, but still.”

“Ha,” Patrick replied and David could tell he was still feeling shaken. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on.”

“Yeah, you can definitely not do that again,” David’s voice was serious. “You know you don’t need to protect me, right? Not anymore.”

David realized that for possibly the first time in his entire life that he meant it. He didn’t want Patrick to protect him, not from this or anything else. He wanted Patrick to stand beside him so that they could deal with things together. 

“You know, David,” Patrick replied, a smirk growing on his face. “While we’re talking about it, there are some other things I’ve been protecting you from. Business planning, sweeping the floor, getting up before eight o’clock, making it to work on time...”

“This is new to me, I might need to take things slow. How about I let you know when I’m ready for you to stop protecting me from those things?” David was glad to see the tension leaving Patrick’s body.

“So you do still want me to protect you a little bit then?” Patrick asked.

“Hmm,” David replied, “Only from the things I don’t want to do.”


End file.
